David Davis quit as Brexit Secretary at midnight last night and was followed out by his junior Steve Baker before Mr Johnson resigned this afternoon.

Tonight a Downing Street spokesperson announced: "The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs."

Mr Hunt vowed to stand "four square" behind Mrs May so the Government can secure a Brexit deal based on the Chequers agreement reached by the Cabinet on Friday.

He added: "This is a time when the world is looking at us as a country, wondering what type of country we are going to be in a post-Brexit world.

"What I want to say to them is Britain is going to be a dependable ally, a country that stands up for the values that matter to the people of this country, and will be a strong confident voice in the world."

And on Twitter he said it was the "greatest priviege of my life" to serve as Health Secretary for almost six years.

Massive wrench for me to leave health - I know some staff haven’t found me the easiest Health Sec but the NHS, and particularly patient safety, has become my passion & it really was the greatest privilege of my life to serve for so many years

Contributions from readers

graham669

08:19 on 10th July 2018

Hopefully J *unt will do less damage to domestic policy, but he will not help our reputation abroad which Johnson has already damaged.
If he takes the same attitude to other countries, as he did with the health service, we will have any foreign aid cut back to minimum, and delivered by profit hungry contractors. Delivering less for more cost.
Security cooperation is unlikely to improve.